Pirates on Skates
by Jill Cohen
Summary: Missing scene from S07E12: After Christopher finds the character reference Lorelai wrote to Luke, he and Lorelai argue and he leaves. But he is back when she wakes up the next day and they have a serious conversation about their relationship. My go at fixing Lorelai and Christopher. One-shot for now, but I might continue it.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Pirates on skates

Lorelai woke up and remembered the fight with Christopher before she even opened her eyes. Well, fight isn't really the best word for it. He was jealous. He was a bit drunk. He was upset. And he had every right to be. While setting up the jumbotron flat TV he had found the character reference letter she had written for Luke's custody case against Anna Nardini. She really should have thrown out that copy.

No. What she really should have done was tell him about the whole thing. She of course knew that he would find it hard to take. She knew that Luke was a sensitive subject for Chris. But a few months before, when April had appendicitis and Luke called Lorelai without knowing what to do, Lorelai had told Chris about it and even went to the hospital to support Luke. Chris knew all about it from the start and he was ok with it. He understood that Lorelai wanted to go support her friend. He knows that having your daughter get sick and need emergency surgery is scary and incredibly stressful. He would have understood the character reference letter, no doubt about it. So why didn't she just tell him about it? God, she could be so stupid sometimes.

So, obviously, when he found the letter he knew that she had hidden it from him. Of course, he was upset. She would have been too. Hadn't she been so impressed and glad when Chris had told her about Sherry's letter right away? Her relationship with Chris, this time around, had been so open and mature. Sure, they had had a couple of spats, for example the whole discussion about sending GG to Paris to see her mother. But they talked it over and ended up resolving it in just a few hours. And that led to the most fantastic trip to Paris ever. So why couldn't they have just talked this out? Again, she could be so stupid sometimes.

She had to call Chris. She had to find him, get him to come home and talk this out. They were going to sit down and really talk. Put everything on the table and be grown-ups about this. Well, they would be adults about it. And they'd pronounce it Ah-dults. She was going to fix this.

She started to stretch to reach the phone on Chris' side of the bed, her eyes still closed, when her hand hit something warm and hard. Her eyes snapped opened at the same time the person in bed next to her let out a resounding "Ouch!"

"Chris! Oh my god, I'm so sorry!' Lorelai sat up in bed and reached for Christopher, who was pressing the heel of his hand to his eye.

"God, Lor. Way to kick a man when he's down." Christopher said, not entirely joking.

"It was an accident! I'm so sorry! I was reaching for the phone to call you. I didn't know you'd be here. Are you ok? Did I hurt your eye?"

"I know your obsession with Johnny Depp runs deep, but gauging my eye out is not the way to get me to dress up as a pirate in bed." Christopher said sitting up, still holding his eye.

"Well, you refused to dreadlock your hair and stop showering so I had to pull out the big guns. I'm really sorry, are you ok? Let me see." She leaned over him, gently pulling his hand away from his eye. He looked up towards the ceiling, blinking away the tears of pain that had leaked from the assaulted eye.

"Am I bleeding?" He asked, feeling better already but continuing with the ruse, if only to delay the serious conversation for a few more moments.

"Oh, your eye is completely gone. It bounced straight out of your head and across the room. Paul Anka already gulped it down. So, you'll have to use that eye patch I got for you after all. The good news is that we save on some breakfast kibble." She said, gently stroking the side of his face, drying the tears.

"Darn. I guess I'll have to get used to seeing the world in two dimensions. Give up my dream of being a basketball player. Or dart player. Or bird of prey."

"I'm telling you, pirate is the way to go." She said with a sad smile, shifting her strokes from his face to his hair. He looked at her then, also giving a weak smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He still wore the same clothes from the day before, his grey Yale hoodie looking wrinkled and slept in. His eyes red from lack of sleep, on top of the close encounter with her hand, of course.

"You came back" she said after a moment, smiling a bit more.

"I'm sorry I left. I shouldn't have. I just- ". He started to say, sitting up a little more, before she interrupted.

"No, I get it. You were angry. I understand. I should have told you about the letter. I knew it'd upset you and hiding it only made it worse.

"Lor…"

"No, Chris, let me say this, please." She interrupted again, reaching for his hand. He only looked at her, letting her continue. "You were right to be upset. I should not have hidden the letter from you. I should have told you about it right after Luke asked me to write it. But I promise: I am not still in love with him. This was not, in any way, a love letter to him. It was honest, and caring, because he is a great guy who doesn't deserve to lose his daughter. But that's it. I knew you wouldn't be super happy about me writing it. I thought you might want to read it and I didn't want you to be upset because I wrote something personal about him. But I also didn't want the fear of you being upset about it to stop me from writing a good letter that could actually help him get his custody of his daughter. So, I hid it. It was stupid and dumb and you probably would have been fine with me writing it if I had been honest about it from the get go. I mean, you were great and understanding when April was in the hospital with appendicitis. You didn't mind that I went to visit them there, did you?" She paused to let him answer.

"No, of course I understood. I'd be terrified if the same thing had happened to GG, or Rory, and I had been alone with them."

"I know you would have. I would have too! I told you about that and you understood and I should have done the same thing now. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok." Christopher said, squeezing her hand lightly. He looked down at their joined hands, stroking her hand with his thumb. Lorelai breathed a little sigh of relief that the conversation was going pretty well so far. They were silent for a few moments. "So, Luke is fighting for custody of his daughter?" He asked.

"Yes. It seems Anna, April's mother, wants to move to New Mexico and doesn't want to let Luke see April anymore, not even during the holidays or summer, so he is suing her for shared custody. His lawyer said he needed to get a character reference and he asked me to do it. I couldn't say no."

"No, of course not." He replied honestly.

"We have known each other a long time, even before we were together, so I could attest to him being dependable and good with kids and so on. I might have written it a bit too personal and touchy-feely, but it was just to help him out with the case, I swear! It was not because of any lingering feelings for him. Please believe that."

"If you say so…" He said, avoiding her eyes.

"I do, I promise, Chris. I need you to believe me. You are not my rebound. You are my husband, I love you! I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"I've been thinking, and I want to tell you about my and Luke's relationship." Christopher started to interject but she pressed on. "I'm serious. They say communication is the key to any relationship, right? You're obviously insecure about Luke and I really think that knowing about it, that us talking about it, will help."

"Lorelai, you shouldn't have to tell me all about your previous relationships."

"I want to. I really think it will help. Please? I'll give you my Police Synchronicity shirt back, that's how much I want to do this."

"Will you make me an eye patch out of the shirt?" He said, a glint in his eye.

She sucked in a sharp breath, shocked. "Cut up my beloved shirt? My beloved shirt that was unceremoniously taken from me 22 years ago? The shirt that I mourned the loss of for two decades and that has only recently been returned to me?" He chuckled softly. "Tell you want, I'll go find a The Offspring t-shirt and make you eye patches out of that. How about it?" Her smile growing.

"Will you wear a "The Offspring is better than Metallica" shirt?"

"I'll even say you're pretty fly, for a white guy". She smiled back. He chuckled again, looking down to their hands again, nodding his head gently.

"Luke is a great guy and we were friends for many many years before we started dating. And for a long time things were going great. I proposed to him and he said yes. I didn't want to plan the wedding right away because Rory and I were in a fight and I wanted her to be involved. Then, Luke found out about April and he started shutting me out. He knew about April for 2 months before he told me. Two months! And he didn't even really tell me. I found out. I went into the diner one day and she was there doing chores. He had called me earlier that day to ask if I was going to come by the diner and I was super busy so I said I wasn't going to have time. So he wasn't expecting me to come. I have no idea when he would have finally told me. Then, when I knew, he still didn't let me in. He wouldn't let me meet her, I could only come to the diner when April wasn't visiting, only see him after she was gone. Even talking about her was awkward. I tried giving advice on a birthday present for her and he shut me down then too. He only let me in when the birthday party he was throwing for her was going terribly because he had no idea how to make it fun for a bunch of 13-year-old girls. He asked me to come and save the party. The next day Anna, April's mother, found out that I was at the party and gave out to Luke because she didn't know me and he so shut me out again. This went on for months. He asked to postpone the wedding. I had to cancel everything. Well, I didn't cancel everything because I had hope that it would still happen but June 3rd came and went and nothing was changing. I couldn't take it anymore. He made no room for me in his life and I was tired of feeling like I was sitting outside, in the rain, looking in the window while he kept closing the curtains. I gave him an ultimatum. I asked him to elope with me and he said no. And that was it. It was over. I came to you." She finished, pushing a bit of hair behind her ear. It felt awkward to say all of that, to make herself so bare like that. But she knew it was the right thing. This was the only thing she could do to make sure Christopher understood.

"I know that it might seem to you that you're a rebound, especially because I came to you that night." She continued, looking him in the eye. "But Chris, I came to you because you are you! You are my best and oldest friend. You know me better than anyone. You always make me feel better, no matter what. And I knew you loved me, always had, and that you'd be there for me. That I could count on you." She stroked his face again. "I was upset, and I used you that night, I know. I'm sorry. I'm not proud of it. But it ultimately brought us here, and I'm definitely not sorry about that. If all the pain and heartbreak with Luke was what I had to face for us to finally get here, I'd do it a million times over."

"I'm sorry it took so long though. It was my fault. I have been a mess." He said, looking down again.

"Maybe last time, but this time you have been great! Honestly, you have been perfect! You understood I needed time, you were patient, were ok taking it super slow. You were always open about everything. I remember how surprised I felt when you told me about Sherry's letters pretty much right away after you got it. I had just come out of months of Luke sneaking and hiding everything about April and me having to withhold my opinion and my thoughts. But you told me about her letter and also wanted my opinion! You included me in the decisions, you let me be involved in GG's life, in your life!"

"But I pushed you to marry me in Paris."

"My one and only problem with that was that Rory wasn't there. And I didn't insist on waiting for her, or calling her because I knew she'd try to talk me out of it." Christopher looked hurt at hearing that Rory wouldn't have wanted Lorelai to marry him, but Lorelai continued before he could continue with that thought. "Not that she doesn't want us to be married, not at all. It's just that she is a real goody-goody that daughter of ours. Very little sense of adventure or spontaneity. She has to make an exhaustive pro/con list for everything, even what breakfast cereal to eat that day. I honestly don't know where she got that from, because it obviously wasn't from either of us!" She finished laughing.

"No, it doesn't seem like it" Christopher agreed with a smile.

"She and I talked when we got back from Paris. She is honestly very happy for us, both of us." She insisted, locking eyes with Christopher hoping to drive the message into him. "I was so happy to marry you in Paris. The whole trip was amazing, Chris. Everything with you is so easy and fun. We know each other so well, we get along so well. I loved every second of it, even when we were starving and roaming the streets in the middle of the night, getting laughed at by that French baker." He laughed again.

"But I have to apologise to you, Chris. Everything you said yesterday was true. I didn't want to leave Stars Hollow. I didn't want to let my parents throw us a wedding party. I wasn't very open about the idea of having another baby. And I didn't deal well with any of these topics. We should have sat down and talked about all of them. I should have let you give your opinion, heard your plans and really considered them. I realised that I have been doing to you the same as Luke did to me and I'm so sorry about it!" Lorelai's voice caught in her throat as she was getting emotional.

"No, Lor! You haven't. You haven't been locking me out like that!" Christopher reached for her.

"Yes, I have!" Lorelai cried, tears falling from her eyes.

"No, you haven't! You have been super concerned about introducing me o the town's people, getting people to like me, setting me up on man-dates with every liked man in this place. That's not shutting me out."

"But I didn't want to get that house you liked, I didn't want to discuss having a baby, I didn't want to hang the new Christmas stockings you brought, I didn't want to put a flat screen in the bedroom, -." She started to list, talking faster and faster, getting more and more agitated, making Christopher interrupt her.

"You love this house, I get that! While I do hope we get to talk about having another kid eventually, I know that I just sprung it on you that night. And the Christmas traditions, I understand that you and Rory have a way of doing things. I'm sure there's a ton of other traditions for every holiday over the year that I'll have to learn about. I want to learn about all of them, I really do! I don't want to change everything about the life you have with Rory. I just hope that we can add some new traditions into the mix, stuff we can come up with together. For example, do you guys celebrate Pirate day? Because, based on today alone I think you'd love it! We can make a whole thing out of it!" Christopher said trying to make Lorelai calm down and laugh a little. It worked. "And I admit that a flat screen in the bedroom would be a bad idea. We already have plenty of ways of entertaining ourselves up here." He wiggled his eyebrows and bumped his shoulders gently against hers. She left out a laugh that sounded a bit like a sob, covering her face with her hands and leaning into him, letting him hug her and press a kiss into her hair.

Lorelai took a few deep breaths, wiping her tears and resting against Christopher's chest. "I don't want you to think I don't love you, that I don't want to be married to you, that I don't want you in my life. I love you so much, Chris. I'm sorry that I made you doubt that."

"No, Lor, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I said last night. I asked you to tell me that you didn't love him anymore and you did, without hesitation, and I just didn't listen. I let my insecurities take over. Reading what you said about him, how great he was with Rory, how dependable he was, a father figure to her. How "once he is in your life, he is in your life forever", I got jealous-."

"I wrote that to help with his court case! He is a great guy, but I definitely embellished it too. I wanted to make him sound like a great dad for April!" Lorelai interjected, sitting up to turn and look at Christopher.

"I know! I know you did. And you did it really well, by the way! Any judge will have a hard time keeping a daughter away from a dad like the one you described. I just…" He trailed off, not really wanting to finished the sentence.

"What, Chris? You can tell me." Lorelai said softly.

"I hate knowing that I wasn't the guy you could depend on for all those years. That I wasn't the father figure for Rory." He said sad and embarrassed.

"Oh, Honey."

"I hate it. I was a shitty, flaky father and I can't change it. I can never go back and redo it."

"You were not shitty or flaky, Christopher! You were sixteen years old!" Lorelai help his head in her hands, trying to get him to look at her.

"So were you!"

"I know, honey. But I didn't have another choice! I didn't want to be under my parents' thumb anymore. I didn't want Rory to grow up in that house, in that world. I had to leave. Otherwise I would have left her with the army of nannies that Emily had arranged for and I would have gone on with my plan of joining a roller derby team and touring the world. I already even had my derby name picked out: Lindy Oilslick."

Christopher laughed at that, but didn't let it distract him. "No, you wouldn't have."

"I would too! At least until I found out that you have to wear a mouthguard during the matches. I'm all up for the cool alias and the outfits, but I like my teeth where they are, thank you very much."

"You were sixteen and you did it all by yourself. Your daughter needed you and you were there for her." Christopher insisted.

"And so were you! When Sherry left GG and took off to another continent, you were there and you have been there every day since for GG. You are a great father, Chris. That kid loves you and trusts you with her life! She is happy and balanced and secure in the fact that you are always going to be there for her."

"But Rory – "

"Rory also loves you! Yes, it's true that you weren't that present in her early years, but she knows why. She understands. And she doesn't blame you, I promise you that! You were always a hero to her, even from afar. I'm sorry that she and I have been kind of hesitant in trusting you, in trusting that you are here and that you're going to _be_ here. We have been alone for all these years, we are set in our ways. But we want you here, you and GG. We are so happy you are here. I'm so happy you are here. I'll work harder at making space for you and for new traditions. I promise. I will trust you! I'll trust _us_! We have to just commit to this, you know? We're it. We have to trust that. No matter what."

"I know. You're right. I have to trust you, us, too."

"We have been apart for many years, we had our own lives. Now we have to merge these two lives, equally. I'm sorry I haven't been willing to merge your life into mine. I wanted to have you in my life, but not change anything else. That's not going to work. It's not fair to you. I realise that now." Lorelai leaned her forehead against Christopher's, closing her eyes and just trying to convey to him all her love with that gesture.

"Thank you. I want to be in your life. I love you, Lor, and everything about you. I know you love this town and I know I'll love this town too. I _do _love this town. I don't want to make you leave. I want to get to know everyone, and be a true starshollian. I want to go to the town meetings and make fun of Taylor. I want to go watch Miss Patty's annual dance recitals. I want to see what new carriers Kirk will attempt. I want to dance with you in this years' Dance-A-Thon until our feet fall off. I want to decorate the house for Halloween and scare the bejesus out of the kids that come trick or treating. I want go on walks with Paul Anka and visit you at the Inn for lunch, and have dinner together when you get home. I want to travel with you every year on our anniversary. I want to celebrate Pirate day with an absurd amount of food, a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon and wear a dreadlock wig to bed if you want me to." Christopher snaked his arms around Lorelai, drawing her into him, pressing his nose against the crook of her neck and shoulder. "I want to watch all your favourite classics on the giant flat screen with 5.1 surround sound and see you face when you experience these films like you never have before. I want to go to Rory's college graduation with you. I want us to wear all black clothes and spy together on GG during her first date. I want us to play good cop/bad cop with all her boyfriends, or girlfriends, and plan increasingly funnier ways to embarrass her in front of her friends. I want to babysit our grandkids so that Rory can have date nights with her husband. I want to walk Rory down the aisle on her wedding day. And I do want to have another kid with you. I want it all, Lor, but I want it all with you. I'd give it all up to be with you."

Lorelai was hugging Christopher fiercely by now, tears streaming down her face again, holding onto him for dear life. "I want it all with you too, Chris. I want everything and more."

"I love you, Lor." Christopher said, lips pressed against Lorelai's hair.

"I love you too. So much." They hugged for a long time, slowly lowering themselves down onto the bed so they were lying down again. They lay side by side, facing each other, holding the other in their arms, breathing the same air, quietly watching the other, wiping away stray tears, enjoying the silence and allowing themselves to calm down after the emotional talk.

"Are you tired? You look tired. Did you sleep at all?" Lorelai asked. She could see Christopher's eyes were red and his skin pale.

"I slept a little bit in my car, but I'm not that tired." He replied.

"Where did you go?"

"Nowhere." He chuckled quietly. "I drove around for a while, but didn't go far. I came back and parked down the street. Put the seat down and tried to sleep. I've done my share of sleeping in my car, in the days before I traded it for a bike. Somehow I don't remember it being that uncomfortable." He gave a small smile and they went quiet again for a few moments.

"Do you want to talk some more?" Lorelai asked in a whisper, shifting a little away from Christopher, so she could see his face better.

"Yes." He said, reaching for her hand and intertwining their legs together. We wanted to stay connected. I felt like they could tackle any issue and fix any problem as long as they were touching.

"This house…" She started.

"I you know you love this house. We don't have to move." He interjected quickly.

"I do love this house." She agreed, squeezing his hands and smiling. "It has been a great house for me and for Rory. We have fantastic memories here. And I'm not completely against moving. I just want to share this house, and make new memories in it, with you. I want to have you and GG here, be a family here. At least for a little bit. And I'd like to stay in Stars Hollow."

"I'm more that okay with that. We can stay here for several years. I want to. We can keep an eye on available houses in town. If something turns up that we really like, we can buy it and leave it there until we are ready to move. No rush."

"I like that idea." Lorelai replied and they smiled at each other, knowing that was one less thing they had to stress and fight about. But soon Lorelai turned serious again, knowing this next subject wasn't going to be as easy to sort out. "Now about Luke." She paused, giving Chris a couple of seconds to settle into the new topic. "Do you believe me now? Do you believe me that I don't love him anymore, that I love you and that I want to be with you, not him?"

"I do. I know he's your friend and was a big part of your and Rory's life for a long time. As much as I hate it, I hate it because I wasn't there for you myself. Ultimately, I'm glad you had someone to count on, if you couldn't have me." Christopher said honestly.

"It wasn't just Luke, you know. This whole town was there for me and Rory. The whole place belongs in an insane asylum, but they definitely stick together."

"I know." Christopher replied, letting out a big sigh. "Luke might always be a bit of a weak sensitive spot for me, but I'll work on it. Just don't let me find out things hidden away anymore. I understand that you will see him in around, and speak to him, and even help him out with this court thing or other things in the future. Just tell me about it. If I think you're hiding it from me, my head just goes straight to that bad place. I'm not saying you have to report to me every interaction you have with him, of course not. Just give me a heads up."

"I know, you're right. I will, I promise. And we can talk more about it, any time you want, ok?"

"Ok" They smiled and kissed, hugging each other close again. Christopher lay back and puller Lorelai up against him as she lay her head on his shoulder.

After a few moments she started a new topic. "And about having another baby…" She said looking up at him.

"Yeah?" He replied, trying to not sound too eager.

"I've thought about it, since the last time you mentioned it." She admitted. "And I want to do it." A shy smile opening across her face.

"You do?" He asked, trying and failing to hold back his own smile. "Are you sure? I don't want to bully you into it."

"I really do. You were right: we have both done it on our own now. We know how hard it is, we know what we are getting ourselves into. And this time we're together, we're married, we have jobs, money. But most of all, I just want to do it all again with you."

Christopher finally released his smile in full force, his obvious joy so contagious that Lorelai also smiled widely, at least until he pulled her close and kissed her full on the month. She pulled back after a long moment, already slightly short of breath. "Are we done talking now? Can we have makeup sex?" She asked with a foxy smile.

"Aye aye, captain!" he replied going straight back into another deep kiss.

"Wait, wait, just one more thing." She said pulling away, sitting up in bed, looking around.

"What? What are you looking for?" He asked confused.

"A calendar."

"Why?"

"So I can count how many days until Pirate day."

He laughed out loud and pulled her back down to him. "Come back here!"


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone,

Thanks for stopping by! I'm a long-time fan of Gilmore Girls and my favourite pairings are Rory/Logan and Lorelai/Christopher. I have been re watching all the episodes and an idea came to me of how to "fix" Lorelai and Christopher's relationship in season 7. So, I wrote it out and posted it. That is what you can see in the first chapter of this story. I'm not much of a fanfiction writer (I'm a much bigger reader) and I've only ever written one-shots. But as I continued my re watch, I couldn't help but imagine what the story would be like if it followed the tangent I "created". So, I've decided to explore it.

I've zero experience in writing multichapter stories, so I have no idea where this is going or how often I'll update. But bear with me and please give me feedback, so I can improve!

This chapter picks up basically right where the last one ended and covers the next episode, called "I'd rather be in Philadelphia". I didn't exactly reproduce the lines from the show (because I was too lazy to write it all down), but I kept some general things they said.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Lorelai and Christopher stayed in bed for a couple more hours, basking in each other and then catching up on some sleep. They could already feel that there had been a big shift in their relationship. Nothing much had happened, but the power of conversation, of being open, honest and vulnerable with each other, and feeling that they could count and trust on each other, was really what had been missing from the relationship. It's true what they say: love is not enough. A marriage needs love, of course, but it needs all those other things too, in order to survive. And they could already tell that their relationship wasn't going to just survive, it was going to thrive.

The conversation had also had a major impact on the sex. The combination of admitting their weaknesses, committing to each other and agreeing to have another baby took their intimacy to new levels.

All the pirate talk helped too.

When they had finally woken up and taken Paul Anka on his walk, Christopher convinced Lorelai to try watching a film on the flat screen. They had agreed to take a day off work and just enjoy being together and regroup.

They moved to the downstairs and Christopher started making some French toast for breakfast while Lorelai was given the difficult task of choosing a film. Christopher has suggested something with a little action and some sound effects, for her to be able to really appreciate the audio and video experience. She had just decided on a film when the phone rang.

"I'm ready, Chris! And you better bring a lot of French toast because even if we don't need roads where we're going, I'm going to need food to distract me from the stimulation overload that this TV is going to give me!" She yelled walking towards the kitchen.

"Back to the Future! The perfect choice!" Christopher replied while dropping a piece of bread in the frying pan. "Can you get the phone? I'm mid flip. It's over there on the table." He motioned to the kitchen table with his chin.

"I see you're making four pieces of toast." She said impishly, with the phone in her hand, looking over his should at the frying pan.

"Yes." He replied, anticipating some smart comment about his French toast making skills.

"What are _you_ going to eat?" She said, tongue in cheek.

"Message received." He said with a laugh and started to carve more slices from the loaf of bread.

"Thanks, babe." She replied, giving him a squeeze on the arm, and answered the phone.

"Hello, Hill Valley preservation society speaking." She greeted in the phone, making Christopher chuckle. "Oh hi, Luke!" She said turning to face Christopher, surprised to hear Luke on the other end of the line. Christopher's head snapped, locking eyes with Lorelai.

"What?" She said into the receiver. Christopher could hear the other man's voice coming from the phone, but could not understand his words. Luke seemed excited, talking loudly and fast.

"Oh, that's great, Luke. Congratulations!" Lorelai smiled at whatever she had heard Luke say. Luke started talking again, just as excited and fast as before.

"That's sounds amazing. I'm so glad everything worked out." She replied, reaching a hand to Christopher's arm, just wanting to touch him. "Oh, it was nothing. I was happy to help." She then said humbly. She listened to Luke speak for another moment and then added. "I'm really happy for you Luke. Thanks for letting me know."

She smiled up at Christopher again and motioned towards the bread just about to begin to burn on the frying pan. Christopher had been focused on conversation and forgotten what he was doing. He quickly removed the finished toast from the pan and put in a fresh slice of bread that he had previously dipped in the egg mixture.

"Yeah, you too. Bye, Luke." She hung up and put the phone back on the kitchen table. "That was Luke." She said, the smile never leaving her face.

"I figured." Christopher smiled back, turning the fire on the stove down to avoid burning another piece of bread.

"He said he won the court case. He now has shared custody of April."

"Wow" Christopher said turned to face Lorelai. "That is really great." He reached for her with both hands, bringing her close, one hand on each side of her waist.

"Yes, it really is. He said my letter helped convince the judge." She said placing her hands gently on his chest.

"I'm happy for him. A father deserves to be in his daughter's life." He said gently, lacing his fingers together behind Lorelai's back, bringing her even closer to him.

"You ok?" Lorelai asked softly.

"Yeah. I'm fine." He replied just as softly and leaned in for a kiss. The kissed for a couple of moments before Lorelai pulled back.

"Uhm, babe? The toast –"

"Oh, crap!" Christopher cursed, letting go of Lorelai and turning to deal with the situation on the stove. Lorelai laughed at him.

"Do you need help?"

"No" He said, tossing that last piece of toast in the bin and starting a new piece from scratch. "But you can get plates and whatever else we need. I'll start a pot of coffee."

"I can do that. How long until we can go save the clock tower?" Lorelai asked as she pulled plates and cups from the cupboards and cutlery from the drawer.

"Five minutes!" Christopher replied as Lorelai walked to the living room to set the coffee table for their brunch and film session.

Marty McFly had just finished playing Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance when Babette knocked on the door asking to borrow the large potted plant that Lorelai had standing in the corner of the living room. It, of course, fell on Christopher to actually pick up the damn plant and carry it across the yard to Babette's house while Lorelai answered the phone that was ringing again. He made the silly mistake of asking Babette why she wanted to borrow the plant and regretted it immensely as Babette started to explain that she was creating a forest in the bedroom for Maury. Thankfully, before she could say more, Lorelai came running into Babette's house calling for Christopher. Rory had called, sounding quite distressed, saying that Richard collapsed during his Economics lecture at Yale and they were on the way to the hospital in an ambulance.

They quickly got in Christopher's car to drive towards Hartford, leaving Babette with no explanation for the impromptu departure but with instructions to walk Paul Anka later in the day. Christopher drove to John Skinner Medical Center as fast as he could without breaking any major traffic laws. Lorelai seemed calm on the outside, but Christopher knew she must be freaking out.

As they arrived at the hospital, Lorelai got off the car close to the main entrance and rushed inside while Christopher parked the car. Lorelai called Rory's cell phone and eventually found her in the waiting room of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

"Mom!" Rory rushed towards her mother, letting herself be enveloped in her arms.

"Hi Hon." Lorelai gave Rory a big hug then stepped back. "What's going on?"

"They are running tests. They took him to do an EKG and check that it was a heart attack. That's what they think it was. A heart attack. They did an EKG in the ambulance, but said they wanted to do another one here." Rory spoke fast, clearly still agitated by the whole thing.

"I'm sure they'll come out and tell us as soon as they know anything." Lorelai tried to speak calmly, not wanting to exacerbate Rory's agitation. She rubbed Rory's arms, hating that her daughter was so distressed.

"Where is dad?" Rory looked behind her mother in search of her father.

"He's parking the car. Here, let's sit down."

"It was so awful, mom. He just collapsed. He was fine and then he just collapsed." Rory started again.

"Aw, sweets. I'm sorry you had to see that. But I'm sure grandpa was glad that you were there with him." Lorelai smiled softly, holding Rory's hand.

At this moment, a doctor approached the waiting room, calling for the family of Richard Gilmore. The doctor looked to be in his early 60s, with greying curly hair and a white coat. They stood up again and the doctor came to them.

"I'm Dr. Goldstein. Mr. Gilmore is stable and not in any pain. We have performed another EKG and it confirmed that he has suffered a cardiac infarction. We are now taking him to the Cath lab for an angiogram to determine the extent of the damage. We'll know how to proceed from there."

"And how can you proceed?" asked Lorelai.

"Well, if the arterial blockage is severe we will have to perform a bypass." The doctor explained. "I'll come back with more news as soon as the angiogram is finished."

"Ok. Thank you, doctor." She said and Goldstein left again. Lorelai and Rory were just about to sit down when they heard the loud voice of Emily Gilmore ranting about the incompetence of basically everyone around her. She wore a dark blue track suit with pink stipes down the arms and legs. She had clearly come straight from the club. Walking just behind her was Christopher, looking as if he had tried to put in a word edgewise and failed.

"Mom, Chris!"

The two groups met in the waiting room and hugs were exchanged, with Christopher holding Rory tight in his arms for an extra moment, feeling her relax into him.

"You ok, kiddo?" he asked her softly.

"Yeah, Dad. I'm ok. Thanks."

"Have you heard anything?" Emily asked Lorelai and Rory.

"Yes. He had a heart attack. They are doing an angiogram to see how big the blockage is. The doctor said he'll be back with news soon." Lorelai explained.

"Nonsense." Emily declared as she turned around, walked towards the nurses' station and demanded to see Richard. The nurse simply repeated what Lorelai had said. But that sent Emily again into another rant about how inappropriate it was for the nurse to be in such a good mood, how the receptionist at the club was so incompetent that Emily thought she was blind, how it took them 40 minutes to find Emily in the club to tell her the news that Richard was in the hospital and something about John Ascott grunting like a pig. Thinking of the club, she then ranted about being convinced that people were doing drug deals there and how absurd it was that they would start charging for food even though they never served fish. Lorelai gave comments when she could, trying to calm down her mother, but Rory and Christopher stayed out of it, only exchanging looks over the shoulders of Lorelai and Emily.

Suddenly Rory got up saying "Hey!" and Christopher turned to see that Logan had arrived, wearing a long cream overcoat and black scarf. They hugged and talked for a short while before they approached the others. Christopher greeted Logan with a manly hand shake and shoulder pat.

"Emily, Lorelai. I'm so sorry to hear about Richard."

"Thank you, Logan. It's so good of you to come."

"Not at all. Is there anything I can do for you? Would you like a cup of tea?"

"A cup of tea would be lovely. Thank you."

"Coffee, Lorelai? Chris?"

"Thank you, Logan. That would be great." Christopher replied and Logan and Rory left the waiting room in search of the beverages.

"Chris?" Lorelai asks Christopher "Mighty chummy you two must be for him to not even call you by your full name."

"Well, _I_ like him" Christopher replies, tongue in cheek and she snorted.

"What do you have against Logan, Lorelai?" Emily asks sharply.

"Nothing, Mom."

"He's a delightful young man. So kind and considerate. Fantastic manners." Emily insists.

"I know, Mom. He's great." Lorelai says quickly, not wanting Emily to go on another rant or for Rory and Logan to come back and hear them talking about Logan. Christopher laughed quietly at Lorelai from his seat next to Emily, making Lorelai roll her eyes at him.

Rory and Logan returned with the tea just a few moments before the doctor showed up again.

"I'm Emily Gilmore, Mr. Gilmore's wife." Emily declared to the doctor as she stood. Christopher moved beside Lorelai and placed his hand on her lower back, offering some emotional support for the news that was about to come.

"Mrs. Gilmore, I'm Dr. Goldstein. We just finished the angiogram of your husband's heart. Unfortunately, the arterial blockage is worse than we had hoped. The best option now, the only option really, is to perform an emergency bypass surgery." He said, causing the hearts of all five of them to sink.

"When?" Asked Emily.

"As soon as possible. So if you want to see him, now is the time." The doctor then led them away from the waiting room and down a side corridor to Richard's door, Logan staying behind with the teas. "He is awake and mostly alert. We have given him pain medication, which sedated him a bit, but you'll be able to talk. The nurse will be here shortly to prepare him for surgery."

They thanked him and Emily and Rory rushed in but Lorelai hesitated.

"You ok?" Christopher asked gently.

"Yeah. I just need a second." Lorelai said, taking a deep breath.

Christopher laced his fingers with hers, letting her grip his hand as tightly as she wanted.

They were only able to visit Richard for a few short minutes before the nurse came to take him to the operating room. When he was gone, Rory sat with Logan in the waiting room and he skilfully distracted her from worrying for her grandfather by asking how things were going at Yale and with Paris. That got Rory going, telling him all about Paris' crazy check list of college experiences and postgrad applications. Emily went back to the nurses' station and terrorized one of the nurses into letting her use their phone. She then proceeded to make a series of phone calls, cancelling any plans that she or Richard had in the coming days by giving several different excuses, none of them true. Meanwhile, Lorelai and Christopher also sat in the waiting room nearby Rory and Logan, but far enough that they could have their own conversation and not hover over the younger couple.

"God, he looked so small, Chris." Lorelai leaned sideways against Christopher, resting her head on his shoulder while he wrapped his arm around her own shoulders. "I mean, he looked ok, considering, but so small. It's so weird seeing him look small."

"I know… He's normally such a big tall man. It's unnerving to have to look down at him."

"It reminded me of this tree we used to have in the back garden, the one we used to climb to look over the wall to the neighbour's yard, remember?"

"I do. We liked to tease the neighbour's dog." He smiled at the memory.

"One day I was up there and I saw my dad down in the yard. He looked so small. I had never seen him from that angle. He didn't look like the giant man I was used to seeing. He was just a man. I didn't like seeing that then. I hated seeing it again today."

"I understand what you mean. I had the same experience when my father was sick. I mean, I had been taller than him for many years, but seeing him on a hospital bed, so ill, so tired. It was awful." Christopher hadn't had as good a relationship with his dad at the end of his life as Lorelai had with Richard now. Still, his father had always had a larger-than-life energy about him. It was exactly that energy that often made Christopher feel so suffocated by his father, unable to occupy any space for himself whenever the man was in the same room. As Straub became sicker, that energy all but vanished leaving behind an empty shell of a man. It was like his father had died weeks before he actually passed away. It was still hard to remember, even over a year later.

Lorelai lifted her head from Christopher's shoulder as he spoke of his father to look at him. He had never really spoken of the time of Straub's illness before. She was, of course, very familiar with the kind of relationship he had had with his father. But hearing him speak of how difficult it had been to watch his father slowly die was a new experience for her.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you during that time." She said sadly, squeezing his hand. He wrapped his arm closer around her shoulder.

"It's ok. We weren't talking then." He smiled sadly. "And you were there at the end, with adult milk and cookies."

They leaned close and shared a kiss, happy to have each other to share these hard times. Their attention was then turned to Rory, who was telling Logan to go ahead and answered the phone as it was buzzing incessantly. He refused, however, insisting that whatever it was it could wait and that all he wanted to do was be there for Rory.

"See?" Christopher said referring to Logan. "He's a good kid."

"Uh hum" She replied shortly.

"Come on." He insisted.

"His father is an ass." She conceded.

"Well, we know better than anyone not to judge people based on their parents." He said and she nodded her head in agreement.

"Speaking of parents, I think I'd go save the nurses from the wrath of Emily Gilmore." Lorelai got up and walked to her mother, who was still terrorising the nurses, this time about the proper way to use pillow cases. She dragged her mother back into the waiting room, but Emily was still agitated, going over a mental list of things she had to do to manage Richard's time in the hospital and the consequences of the heart attack.

"Emily, is there anything we can help with?" Christopher offered, hoping to help ease her agitation.

"Oh Christopher, you're so kind. Actually, yes, there's something you could do. Could you drive to Yale and get Richard's car? I'm not sure exactly where he parked but it will be somewhere in the staff car park."

"Yes, of course. 2006 green jaguar, right?" He said reaching for his coat and starting to put it on.

"Exactly. I'll get you the keys."

As Emily dug around in her purse for the car keys, Christopher wrapped his scarf around his neck and kissed Lorelai in the cheek. "Will you be ok here?"

"Yes, I have Rory. I won't be alone with Mussolini." She joked. "Thanks, hon."

"Ok, if anything comes up just call me." He waved to Rory and Logan and got the keys from Emily, who was already engrossed in a conversation on the phone, ordering an enormous quantity of fish.

When Emily hung up a few seconds later, however, she informed she needed someone to meet the fish man at her house because they would be delivering all the fish she had just ordered in the next couple of hours.

"Logan and I can meet the fish man, Grandma. I wanted to bring some of Grandpa's things, make him feel more at home when he comes out of surgery."

"Oh Rory, that would be great! Here, I'll write down instructions of where to put each fish. Some I want in the basement freezer and some in the butler's pantry."

Emily gave Logan a check and the written instructions and he pocketed them while gathering his and Rory's coats. "You came here in the ambulance." He pointed at Rory. "And I don't have a car here so…"

"Oh."

"Go see if you can catch up with Chris. I'll call him and tell him to wait for you." Lorelai said pulling her phone out of her purse and dialing.

"That's a good idea. Then we can drive grandpa's and dad's car back from Yale together."

"Ok, then let's hurry so he doesn't leave without us." Logan concluded, handing Rory her coat and putting his arm over her shoulders.

"You didn't drive here?" Rory asked as they walked away.

"No, I came by chopper actually."

"Chopper motorcycle or chopper helicopter?"

"Helicopter." Logan replied with his trademark smile, his eyes narrowing as his cheeks raised.

"You came here by helicopter?"

"Yup."

"Cool!"

Christopher was waiting with the car for Rory and Logan in front on the entrance to the parking lot. Logan opened the door for Rory to slide into the passenger seat and he got into the back.

"So you abandoned your mother with Mussolini?" He greeted them with a smile.

"Dad! Don't call Grandma Mussolini."

"Hey, I'm only repeating your mother's words." They all laughed at that and Christopher started the drive. Rory looked behind her at Logan and noticed GG's car seat installed next to him.

"Where's GG, Dad?"

"She's with your grandmother this week. You haven't met her, Logan, have you? Rory's little sister?"

"No, I haven't. Not yet."

"You'll have to come out to Stars Hollow some day and meet her. We can all get dinner together, show you around the place." Christopher invited and Rory gave him a grateful look, for including Logan in the conversation and inviting him over.

"I'd love to visit Stars Hollow. Rory has mentioned it is quite a special place."

"Oh, it's a loony bin, for sure, but its home." He smiled at Rory when she looked at him quite surprised to hear him call Stars Hollow his home. "GG will love you." He continued to Logan. "She's obsessed with blonds right now."

"What?" Rory laughed. "Why?"

"She recently realised that she herself is blond but not a lot of people around her are. We are all brunets, you, your mother and I, so is my mother and GG's kindergarden teacher. So she gets very excited whenever she meets a blond."

"That's hilarious." Commented Logan.

"She's so sweet." Rory agreed.

"So how are things at Yale, Rory?" Christopher asked. "Last semester, right? How is it going?"

"It's going fine. Very busy. Paris is driving me crazy with her list of experiences and applications she wants us to do."

"Yes, I heard you talking about it. Something about bouncing a ball on your nose?" He joked.

"Exactly. She is definitely encouraging me to put my eggs in as many baskets as possible, so to speak."

"And how is post-Yale life treating you, Logan?"

"It's going alright, sir."

"He's being humble." Rory said. "He's doing so well. He recently bought this big internet company and its thriving." She gushed.

"Ah, I don't know about thriving, but I admit I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected I would." Logan said laughing.

"And how do you like living in New York?"

"What's not to like? I can get Chinese food, or any food for that matter, any time of the day or night. There are endless options of things to do and see. I love it."

"Logan moves 100 miles a minute. Any slower than that and he gets bored." Rory explained

"Come on, Ace. You make me sound like I'm on crack." He joked. "I just like to keep busy, that's all. For now, at least, the city that doesn't sleep suits me just fine." He finished, reaching forward to lace his fingers with Rory's for the rest of the drive.

They continued to chat, both Christopher and Logan wanting to distract Rory from thinking of her grandfather in surgery back at the hospital. Once at Yale, Logan directed them towards the staff car park and Christopher drove Richard's jaguar back to Hartford, while Rory and Logan drove in Christopher's Volvo. They drove following each other most of the way back to Hartford, but as they were getting close to the Gilmore residence, Christopher stopped to fill up the tank of the jaguar while Rory and Logan continued on. Rory and Logan collected books, albums and a chess set for Richard, while Christopher decided to shovel the snow in the drive away. Then he put together a small case of Richard's clothes, particularly pyjamas, and toiletries. From his time spent by his own father's death bed, Christopher had an idea of what type of clothes would be most comfortable and easy to put on/take off. He also asked Rory to get Emily a change of clothes as well. There was no way he was going to look through Emily's clothes and try to pick something out himself, but he was sure she would appreciate getting out of the track suit she had been wearing at the hospital. While they were busy with that, Logan dealt with the fish man (and had to sit through a terrible pun joke about cod) and started loading the car for them to return to the hospital.

Emily and Lorelai seemed very glad to see the three of them return, obviously needing a buffer between them. Emily went to change into the clothes Rory had brought and Christopher allowed Lorelai to vent some of her frustrations about her mother to him. He asked if they were hungry, offering to go get food a few times in the next few hours, but the Gilmore girls were all still too stressed and worried about Richard to feel any hunger. Finally, after what felt like days, Dr. Goldstein appeared, now dressed in scrubs, and told them that the surgery had run smoothly. Richard would have to stay in the hospital for several days to recuperate, but he would be fine. Emily was invited to see him first, but the relief was felt by all of them instantly. Lorelai, who had been gripping Christopher's hand very tightly at the sight of the doctor, let out a small sob when she heard that Richard was ok and buried her face in Christopher's neck when her mother had left to see Richard. After a little while, Rory and Lorelai were allowed in to see Richard as well, and Christopher and Logan decided then would be a good time to go get some food for all of them, sure that the women would become famished as soon as they put the last few hours of stress behind them.

Emily left Rory and Lorelai with Richard while she went off in the search of sheets with higher thread count. Rory played some of the albums that she had brought for Richard, and distributed the rest of his things around the room, making it look homier. Soon however, Richard became tired and said he was going to close his eyes for a little while.

"He's asleep, isn't he?" Rory asked, perching on the arm of the chair Lorelai was occupying.

"Yes. Should we draw a fake moustache on his face?"

"He already has a real moustache."

"He doesn't have a monobrow."

"Mom!"

"Alright, alright. Uhm, Rory?

"Uhm, Mom?"

"It has been great of Logan to here with you. I'm glad that you're happy with him.' Lorelai said honestly.

"Thanks. I am."

"He's not half bad, that Logan. He's almost ok." She joked.

"Yeah, he's alright. Uhm, Mom?

"Uhm, Rory?"

"It was nice to see you and dad so close today as well. You both look really happy." She smiled calmly.

"We had a big fight last night."

"What? Really? I couldn't tell at all!"

"We talked this morning and worked it all out."

"What did you fight about?"

"He found the letter I wrote for Luke's court case. Luke won the case, by the way, I forgot to tell you. He gets shared custody of April."

"Wait, go back. Dad found the letter? I'm guessing you hadn't told him about it."

"No. I really should have. It was stupid not to. Your dad was understandably angry. It as a pretty personal letter."

"But you talked?"

"We talked. We talked about a lot actually. About Luke, Stars Hollow, our house, you."

"Me?"

"You're a big topic for both of us, kid."

"Well, yes but, hopefully not something to fight about."

"No, no. It was a good talk. A really good talk, actually. We are in a better place than we have ever been before."

"Really? That's great, mom."

"Yeah, it was. We made a few agreements, talked about the future. And we made one particularly big plan."

"Oh yeah? What?"

"We want to have a baby." Lorelai whispered, looking again at Richard to make sure he was asleep and not listening into the conversation.

"Wow." Rory whispered back, her eyes wide. "That is big."

"How do you feel about it?"

"I don't know. Good, I guess." Rory said, a bit too surprised to know what to say.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I mean, it's great that you want to have another kid. You're both still young. You should definitely do it. I'll love having another sibling. Maybe you'll have a boy this time."

"Oh god. I hadn't thought of that. What do I know about raising boys?"

"Don't get them wet or feed them after midnight?"

"Oh yeah, I knew there was something like that." They laughed.

"Thanks, hon. I'm excited." Lorelai smiled widely.

"I'm excited too." Rory smiled back.

"Oh, speaking of babies, you're never going to guess who is pregnant!"

"Who?"

"Sookie!"

"Sookie? But I thought Jackson got a vasectomy."

"So did she!"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: This chapter is set two days after the events of the last chapter. I own nothing.

Christopher stood with his back against the building on the corner across the street from the place he was mentally preparing himself to enter.

This was not going to be easy. Or pleasant. Or even safe.

But he was determined. He was going to go in, be polite and amenable, get what he wanted and then leave as soon as possible. It was only a first step but would likely be the hardest one and he figured that the faster it was over the better. Paul Anka, sitting on the side walk looking up at Christopher, seemed blissfully unaware of the anxiety Christopher was feeling.

Christopher really didn't want to go in there, but he was doing this for Lorelai. This was important to her and she had been having a hard time lately, with the stress of Richard's second heart attack. Of course, everything with Richard was ok now. He was going to be just fine. But the effects of stress remain and he was sure this was going to help with that. She was a Gilmore girl, after all. For a Gilmore girl, coffee has magical soul-healing properties. And he had heard that this was the best coffee in town. So he was going to get his Gilmore girl a cup of her favourite coffee, damn his own insecurities.

And if it built the first inch of a metaphorical reconciliation bridge between him and the man in charge of the coffee, for Lorelai's sake, all the better.

He took one last deep breath, straightened his coat, and turned to cross the street, calling Paul Anka and walking towards Luke's diner. At the front of the diner he told the dog to sit and wait.

The bell above the door jingled as he entered and a loud voice called from somewhere inside the kitchen. "I'll be right with you!"

The diner wasn't full. It was well past the breakfast rush so most costumers had already come and gone. Christopher had chosen the time carefully. Nevertheless, a few stragglers remained, generally unaware of him, focusing on their own affairs. One such straggler, however, was known for her sharp eyes and ears and close monitoring of other people's lives. Babette saw Christopher enter and knew straight away what this meant, and that the atmosphere in the diner was about to become very tense indeed. She let out a surprised and hoarse "Oh, oh." Christopher turned a friendly smile towards her and greeted her.

"Hi Babette." Christopher said as he walked to the counter. He was actually somewhat glad that there would be witnesses of this encounter, but he would have preferred with the witness wasn't one of the two biggest town gossips. This story was likely to be all around town before he even left the diner. Well, nothing to be done about it now.

"Hi Christopher, sugar." Babette replied, her face looking more like a deer caught in headlights than a friendly neighbour greeting another. Her high and hoarse voice, however, must have carried across the diner, because a loud crashing sound came from within the kitchen, as if someone had suddenly dropped a metal tray in surprise.

Sure enough, Luke Danes came out of the kitchen then, back and shoulders tense, a deep scowl on his face. He stood behind the counter, directly facing Christopher, but didn't say anything.

Here we go.

"Hi Luke" Christopher said, with a clear voice and tiny smile, wanting to be friendly but not wanting to seem like he was playing dumb, or pretending that everything was ok between them.

Luke said nothing in return and continued to scowl at Christopher, his breathing deepening. Christopher thought that if Luke had been a cartoon, fumes would have been billowing out of his ears. "Come on, Chris" He thought to himself. "Get it done and get out, asap."

"I'd like two coffees to go, please, black" Luke's frown seemed only to deepen, and he made no move towards filling the coffee order. Instead, he looked incredulously at Christopher, crossing his arms across his chest and planting his feet.

Oh, boy.

Time to appeal to a shared interest: Lorelai.

"Richard had a heart attack" He said simply. The reaction in Luke's features was instantaneous. His frown lightened and his shoulders dropped a little. How mouth seemed to ask "what", but no sound came out. He was shocked.

"He's fine!" Christopher added straight away. "He's going to be fine." This statement seemed to have a positive effect in reducing Luke's blood pressure as the shocked look left his face and was not immediately replaced with the rage that had been displayed there previously. Christopher saw this as his opportunity to continue. "But it's been a couple of tough days for Lorelai and Rory, and I thought some coffee would cheer them up." In reality, the two coffees were for him and Lorelai, not Rory, but Christopher thought that dropping Rory's name in the story might endear Luke to the cause, as well as not bring so much focus to Lorelai, the source of their feud. "They really like your coffee." He finished with another small smile, and put his hands on the counter in a subconscious way of showing he was "unarmed".

Luke dropped his arms from across his chest and took a deep breath. He dropped Christopher's gaze and turned to the coffee machine, filling two to-go cups with coffee. He placed them in a travel tray and rested them on the counter, next to the cash register. He then pulled out a pair of metal tongs, got two pastries from under a glass cloche and put them inside of a paper bag. Christopher was slightly confused at that. He had hardly hoped to get out of the diner with the two coffees, let alone two pieces of pastry that he didn't even ask for.

Luke noticed the confusion but only said "It's Danish Day" obviously not whiling to explain any further than that. Christopher was definitely not going to question it.

"That's great. Thank you." Christopher said gently and reached for his wallet. He had come to the diner with exact change for the two coffees, hoping to shave off as much time from the interaction as possible. The Danishes, however, ruined that plan so he was going to have to give some more money. Fortunately, he had a couple of small bills that would suit fine. He certainly didn't want to use a large bill. Firstly, because it would require waiting to get change and, secondly, because he didn't want to seem like the rich Hartford brat that paid for coffee with 100-dollar bills.

Who knew something as simple as buying coffee could be such an obstacle course of social interaction? Christopher dropped the bills on the counter, put his wallet in his back pocket and collected the coffee tray and paper bag.

"Bye." He said and turned to the door, nodding goodbye to Babette, who was still watching him intently. He wasn't too happy with turning his back on Luke, but he thought the whole thing had gone really well considering and just wanted to get out of the dinner before something happened to screw it all up. Babette gave him a wide crooked smile and two thumbs up as he opened the diner door and walked out.

He quickly told Paul Anka to follow him, walked across the street and out of sight of the diner before releasing a sigh and letting a smile open across his face. He had done it. He had gone in, said as little as possible and gotten the coffee!

"We did it, Paul Anka! We did it!" He cheered happily to the dog, who responded to Chris' good spirits with excited tail-wagging and a bark. Christopher was so happy about the success of his mission that he was willing to consider the whole Danish thing as a sign of Luke mellowing out a bit. A tiny miniscule bit, but a bit nonetheless.

Just before getting a call from Rory alerting them that Richard had collapsed during a lecture and was being taken to the hospital, Christopher and Lorelai had had an intense conversation about their relationship. They addressed a number of issues, including Lorelai's previous relationship with Luke and Christopher's insecurity concerning Luke's part in Lorelai's and Rory's lives. The conversation, while emotional and difficult, had been very positive and Christopher felt much more secure in Lorelai, and she in him. They had agreed to trust in each other and in them as a couple, to communicate about their worries and to make more efforts in merging their lives together. They also agreed to stay in Stars Hollow and start trying for a new baby. Thankfully, they had had time to start the whole trying process, twice, before the call about Richard had come through. Since then they had been focused on Richard and Emily and hadn't really talked about their conversation again, but Christopher still felt great about it and was glad that he and Lorelai were at a good place in their relationship to deal with the heart attack stress. Lorelai was, of course, very concerned for her father, more than she wanted to let on, and was leaning on Christopher, both physically and emotionally a lot. It pleased him to feel that she was glad to have him there and that he was a source of emotional support. They had come back from the hospital late last night, in desperate need of a full night's sleep in an actual bed as opposed to waiting room chairs. He knew that Lorelai would want to go back to the hospital as soon as she woke up, so he had snuck out of bed, taken Paul Anka, and gone off on his near suicide mission to get coffee from Luke's.

He hoped that the gesture would cheer her up and show that he was working on his insecurities towards Luke. He had said that he understood that Lorelai and Luke were friends and would inevitably see each other quite regularly in the small town. But he also wanted to help settle the tense atmosphere between all three of them. He didn't want Lorelai to lose her friend, and he definitely didn't want to have to avoid Luke for the rest of his life. Considering that his last fight with Lorelai had started because of an interaction between Lorelai and Luke, he knew that Lorelai was not going to reach out to Luke anytime soon, afraid of starting another fight with Christopher. So, he decided to go get some coffee from Luke's to show to Lorelai that he was ok with her and Luke being friends and to kind of extend an olive branch to the diner owner.

He was now approaching the house and Paul Anka rushed ahead of him to the door, eager to get inside. Christopher hoped that Lorelai was still in bed and that he could surprise her with coffee and Danishes there. He made a quick stop in the kitchen to feed Paul Anka before making his way upstairs to the master bedroom. Lorelai was still asleep, buried under the large fluffy duvet and a mountain of pillows. She had a slight frown in her sleep, signs of the hospital stress still with her. He sat next to her, on his side of the bed and placed the food on the bedside table. Then he started to gently stroke her back, calling her name softly. Part of him wanted to let her sleep more, but she had insisted on waking up early to go back to the hospital and he didn't want the coffee to get cold. She started to wake, blinking against the sun and stretching a bit.

"Good morning, Lor." He smiled at her.

"Good morning." She replied, her voice still heavy with sleep. "What time is it?" She asked and made to turn to look at the clock behind her on her own bedside table.

"It's almost 8am."

"8am?" She groaned, but kept her eyes closed. "You let me sleep in too long."

"Let you?" He laughed. "I tried to wake you but you kicked me in the groin."

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did. I'm just grateful that you keep your toe nails trimmed." He continued to chuckle at her, softly squeezing her hip.

She grumbled something under her breath about him being a pain in her ass and snuggled deeper into her pillow, making him laugh at her again. "Have you been awake for long?" She asked.

"No, not long. About an hour. I fed Paul Anka and took him on his walk. And I brought you something."

"Oh?" The prospect of a gift made her open one eye and watch him, but she stayed lying down. Christopher reached for the coffee and brought it into her field of vision. When she saw the cup, and the very familiar logo printed on it, her head snapped up and her mouth fell open. "Is that…?"

"Coffee from Luke's, yes." He smiled widely. "And a Danish as well." He added showing the paper bag.

Lorelai sat up in bed, completely gobsmacked by the revelation. "You went to Luke's? I mean, you went inside Luke's?"

"Yes."

"_Inside_?"

"That's where they keep the coffee, so yes."

"And you ordered coffee?

"Yes."

"And you were given coffee?"

"And Danishes."

"And you payed for them?"

"You obviously have a firm grasp on how a coffee transaction works" he joked.

"Was Luke there?"

"He was."

"And he saw you?"

"I was wearing my invisibility cloak, so he might have missed me."

"Chris!"

"Yes, he saw me." Christopher laughed at Lorelai.

"And you asked for coffee and he _gave_ you coffee?"

"Don't forget the Danishes."

"Just like that?"

"Well, no." Christopher sighed honestly. "He didn't look happy to see me there. I told him that Richard was in the hospital and that I wanted to get you coffee to cheer you up. Well, I said I wanted coffee for you and Rory, so he'd give me two cups."

"And what did he say?"

"It's Danish Day."

"It's Danish Day." Lorelai repeated.

"It's Danish Day/"

"He said "it's Danish Day?"

"Yes. And then he gave me Danishes."

"Then what happened?"

"I said thank you, payed and left."

"That's it?"

"That's it." He smiled again, handing her the coffee so her could get a Danish out of the paper bag.

"Wow" she said under her breath, grasping her cup in both hands, enjoying the warmth and the scent coming out of it. "So it was ok?"

"Yeah, it was." He handed her a Danish. "I mean, it was tense, but in the end it was ok. A good first step."

"First step?"

"Well, yes. I was thinking of slowly working my way up to actually sitting on a table and ordering food. Maybe even eating it there."

"Bold."

"Yeah, you know me. I like to live on the edge like that." He joked taking a bite of his Danish. "Wow, this is a really good Danish." Lorelai put her own Danish down on her lap and touched Christopher on the knee with her free hand.

"Thank you, Chris." She said seriously, really appreciating the effort and the gesture.

"You're welcome." He replied with an easy smile and leaned in for a quick kiss. "Now eat up before the coffee gets cold. If we leave soon we can be back at the hospital by the time the visiting hours start."

"Ok, but what about GG? Don't we have to go get her back from your mother's?"

"I was thinking of seeing how it goes at the hospital today. If things are more settled and calm, I can go get her. Otherwise, I will ask if my mom can keep GG for a couple more days."

"Are you sure? We don't have to do that."

"Yes, I'm sure. If you're going to be in the hospital a lot, I want to be there for you."

Lorelai slid closer to Christopher and wrapped her arms around him, careful not to spill any of her coffee on him. "Thank you, honey."

"You're welcome." He smiled and hugged her back for several moments, enjoying the peaceful feeling of having her in his arms. "How are you feeling?" He asked softly after a while.

"Better." She replied, still leaning against him, now taking another sip of her coffee. "The sleep helped a lot and this breakfast in bed is perfect." She planted a kiss on his cheek and added, "You're perfect."

_Pirates on Skates_

Later that day, Lorelai and Rory were accompanying Richard on a lap around the Cardiac Care wing, cheering him on but also letting him know that Mrs. Guilhermo was slow-walking a faster mile than him. Of course, no amount of him telling them that Mrs. Guilhermo had had her bypass surgery a whole two days before Richard was enough to make them stop jokingly shaming him about it. Christopher has stayed with them for a little while, but after seeing how much better Richard was clearly doing and feeling, Lorelai convinced him that he should go back to work, having had missed already two full days at the office. Soon Emily joined them on the lap, having just arrived from the Gilmore residence with new bouquets they had received from various friends wishing Richard health. Unsurprisingly, she could find something to rant about.

"Some people are just so insensitive. Whoever heard to sending a bouquet of white roses as good wishes for someone recuperating at the hospital? He's not dead. White flowers are for funerals. Everybody knows that."

"Maybe not _everybody_ knows that, Mom. Maybe they just like white flowers."

"Rory, if there's one thing you learn from me let it be that white flowers are for funerals and funerals only."

"Yes, Grandma."

"And if there's only one thing you learn from me, let it be how to give yourself a full makeover with only lip balm and a crayon." Lorelai joked

"Yes, mom."

"It really isn't hard to grasp." Emily continued, knowing not to engage Lorelai when she was being impossible. "It's common sense, surely? The bouquet that Christopher sent, for example, was absolutely beautiful. So colourful, so cheerful. That man has great taste in flowers, I'll tell you."

"Chris sent a bouquet?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"Yes. Didn't you know?"

"No. He didn't mention it."

"That's sweet of him" Rory said bumping her shoulder against her mothers and smiling at her.

"Yes. You'll give him our thank you, won't you?" Emily added.

"Yes, of course." Lorelai smiled, already itching to call text Christopher and tease him about his superb taste in flowers.

_Pirates on Skates_

After eating lunch at the hospital, Lorelai said her goodbyes and returned to Stars Hollow. She hadn't been to the Dragonfly in a few days and she had a lot of work waiting for her on her desk. Rory also took her leave and returned to Yale, with explicit instructions from Richard to send him a full report on the T.A. that was substituting him in his Microeconomics lectures. As soon as she arrived at the Dragonfly, Lorelai bee-lined to the kitchen.

"Hey! Welcome back! How is Richard?" Sookie greeted her cheerfully.

"Hi Sookie." Lorelai gave a bi smiled and started to pour herself a cup of coffee. "He's doing really well. Walking a few laps of the CICU a day and this morning he even asked the nurse to bring him a copy of the Financial Times."

"Oh! That's good! That's a good sign!"

"Yes. He's going to be fine. I think they'll keep him for another night and then send him home. Emily has a small army of nurses ready to take over at the house, anyway." She finished and took a long sip of coffee, giving Sookie the opportunity to move on to another subject.

"So, I heard some gossip." Sookie said hesitantly.

"Oh?"

"Word is that Christopher ordered coffee from Luke's this morning. From Luke himself, actually."

"Oh yes, I know. I was just as surprised as you. He told me it went ok, for the most part. What did you hear?"

"Apparently Babette was there and saw the whole thing. She said Christopher was polite and friendly. Luke barely said two words to him, but served him so I guess it was fine. So, Christopher and Luke? What is going on there? Last I heard they weren't even looking at each other."

"Well, Chris and I had a big fight a few days ago about Luke –." She started to reply but Sookie interrupted.

"Oh no. Another fight?"

"Yes, but no. I mean, yes, we had a fight, but it was good. We talked a lot of things out. We really sat down and tackled a lot of issues that had hovering over us. By the end of the conversation, we felt so much better about everything. About us, the marriage, our future together."

"Wow. Sounds really mature."

"Well, it wasn't without its dirty jokes about eye patches inserted here and there."

"Of course not."

"And we also talked about Luke. We really talked about it. I told him about our relationship, why it ended, how I felt about it. He talked about feeling insecure and disappointed in himself for not being a bigger part of mine and Rory's lives when she was growing up. How Luke being there reminds him that he hadn't been there and how that makes him feel like a crappy dad."

"Well…" Sookie shrugged a shoulder.

"Sookie, no. He's not a crappy dad."

"Maybe not anymore, but he definitely wasn't around as much as he should have been."

"That's true, but we were sixteen years old. It was crappy situation for everyone. I certainly wasn't an award-winning mom either."

"You were there."

"Sookie." Lorelai took a deep breath and gripped her best friend's arm. "I know you are Team Luke, and I understand it, but I need your support here. I'm really happy with Chris. He has been a constant presence in my heart, one way or another, since I was like 10 years old. And we are working really hard on this marriage. I want it to work more than I have ever wanted a relationship to work before."

"Oh, honey, I know that. I didn't mean to make it seem like I disagree with your choices or don't support you. I'm sorry. I just saw how close you and Luke were, how happy you were with him."

"Yes, but you also saw how miserable I was for the last several months, right?"

"Yes, I did. You're right. I'm sorry. I'm over Luke, I promise."

"So, can you be on Team Christopher now?" Lorelai asked with a smile.

"I'm on Team Lorelai, 300%!" Sookie replied giving Lorelai a big hug. Then, Sookie turned back to the vegetables she had been chopping and said "Now, explain to me what is dirty about eye patches."

"Uhm, hello? Johnny Depp."

"Of course."

_Pirates on Skates_

Later that day, after work, Lorelai came home and saw Christopher's car in the drive. Walking in the door she called "Hello!" and instantly heard the light and fast footsteps of GG running to greet her.

"Lorelai! Lorelai!"

"GG!" She replied with equal enthusiasm, crouching down in the entrance hall and giving GG a big hug. "Oh, I've missed you!"

"I missed you too! You and Paul Anka and Daddy."

"In that order, right?" GG just laughed at Lorelai, knowing to expect antics from her. "Look! I made Grandpa Richard a card to make him feel better."

Lorelai let herself get dragged by the hand to the kitchen, where GG had set up a card making station, complete with construction paper, stickers, crayons, finger paint and glitter. By the stove stood Christopher, working away on preparing dinner. He smiled at Lorelai and leaned slightly towards her, indicating that he wanted a kiss.

"Hi, hon." Lorelai said into the kiss, but was immediately tugged by the hand to focus her attention back on GG.

"Lorelai, look!"

"GG, don't rush her. She just got home. Let her at least say hello first."

"You can kiss later. I want to show her my card." They laughed at her.

"Yeah, Chris." Lorelai agreed. "I can kiss you later. Glitter waits for no man!" She winked at him, turning to look at GG's work. "Wow! That looks so cool, Geege!"

"I made Grandpa Richard blond because Daddy told me he was blond before he got old."

"He'll love it! He's going to go home from the hospital tomorrow. Do you want to drive there after school and give it to him?"

"Yes!"

"Fantastic. And make sure to put a lot, I mean a lot, of glitter! Grandma Emily loves to have glitter all over the house."

"I will!" GG got the card back from Lorelai and went back to her crafting station to finish the card.

Lorelai turned back to Christopher, hugging him from behind as he stirred the dinner.

"Your mother will hate all the glitter." He said, smiling at her over his shoulder.

"My father wasn't blond."

"Your point?"

"That we both told little white lies to make the kid happy."

"And annoying Emily?"

"Makes me happy."

"Of course." He laughed.

"Speaking of Emily, she asked me to pass on her appreciation for the bouquet you sent. Apparently, it was the only one she approved of. All the others were white and, therefore, completely inappropriate."

"Well, sure. White flowers are for funerals."

"Emily Post would be so proud of you." She snorted.

"I need to talk to you about something. Can we do it now or do you want to have a shower first or something like that?" He said, turning the fire on the stove down to the minimum heat, leting the food cook slowly.

"We can do it now." He led her out of the kitchen to the living room, dropping a quick kiss on top of GG's head and reminding her to ask for help if she wanted to use the scissors.

"It's actually something that happened that I want to tell you." He started, hesitating. He sat down on the couch, motioning for her to sit next to him. He took a deep breath and plunged. "I had a fist fight with Luke."

"What?!" Lorelai was shocked. She shifted slightly away from Christopher on the couch, to be able to see him better, take him all in. Her eyes scanned his face looking for signs of the flight, a black eye, split lip or something like that.

"It wasn't today. It was a month ago, around Christmas."

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I was walking on the square, saw him, he saw me, we walked towards each other and just started laying it on each other."

"But why? What did he say or was it something you said?"

"We didn't say anything to each other. At all. Within seconds we were rolling over the Christmas tree."

"I think I remember this. Taylor was complaining about hooligans flattening the head of baby Jesus." Lorelai said softly, almost to herself.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was just so embarrassed. This isn't me. I'm not a violent guy. I'm not aggressive. I was always picked last for dodgeball for a reason! I don't go around punching people. You know that." He continued when Lorelai wouldn't look at him. "Please say something."

"I don't know what to say."

"Come on, I'm sure you can think of something." He tried to lighten the mood.

"I'm sorry that I didn't notice you had this much of a problem with Luke. I mean, I knew it was going to be awkward, but I didn't think it would drive you to blows."

No, Lor. It's not your fault. At all." He held her hand tightly. "It's my fault. I wasn't dealing with how much everything was bothering me. And then when we had that talk a few days ago I started feeling better about everything. And then, this morning at Luke's, getting the coffee went better than I had expected and that made me feel even more embarrassed about the fight I knew I had to tell you. It was so stupid, I know. I'm sorry.

"It's ok… I mean, it's not ok, but I guess I understand."

"It's not going to happen again, I promise."

"Well, It better not. No amount of man-dates with Jackson will get the town to like you if you keep trashing the nativity scene." She joked half-heartedly.

"Are we ok? You're not mad?"

"No, I'm not mad. I'm more disappointed, I guess."

"Understandable. I'm sorry."

"You didn't hurt each other, right?" She looked him over again, almost expecting to see some lingering signs from the fight that she hadn't noticed in over a month.

"No, no. We got tired before either one could do any real damage. Well, aside from baby Jesus, obviously. My ego took the biggest hit, I swear." He assured her, hanging his head a little, knowing that she wasn't very happy with him at the moment but also knowing that telling her was the right thing to do.

They stayed in silence for a moment, before Christopher couldn't take it anymore. "Are you hungry? Dinner will be ready by now." He said lamely.

"Yeah, let's go eat." Lorelai said distractedly. He gave her a defeated smiled and got up, heading towards the kitchen. Lorelai stood and grabbed his hand, stopping him.

"Hey, Chris, wait." She made him turn and look at her. "We're ok, I promise."

"Yeah?"

"Yes." She framed his face in her hands and kissed him gently. "I'm glad you told me."

He nodded and kissed her again. "Come, let's get back in there before our dinner ends up covered in glitter." He gestured towards the kitchen, this time giving a genuine smile.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Are you ready?" Christopher asked, reaching for the doorbell.

"No." He dropped his hand, allowing a couple of moments of silence before asking again.

"How about now?"

"Still no."

"I'm hungry." GG said, tugging on Lorelai's dress.

"Yeah, mom." Rory agreed. "I'm hungry! Let's go in already."

"I need another minute." Lorelai insisted. Rory huffed and tried leaning around her mother to ring the doorbell, but Lorelai slapped her hand away. "Rory! I said I need a minute! You know what is waiting for us in there."

"What's in there?" GG asked curiously.

"Bitter, bitter disappointment, Geege." Lorelai replied, holding GG's hand in both of hers and shaking her head pitifully.

"Actually, we're the ones bringing the disappointment." Commented Christopher, holding GG's other hand.

"So?"

"So, technically, the disappointment is out here with us." He said, grimily.

"What's out here?" GG asked scared, this time looking over her shoulder behind them towards the driveway.

"See, now you're scaring her." Rory chided her parents. "It's nothing, GG. Mom and Dad are just being silly."

"Silly?" Lorelai asked indignantly. "You know very well how Emily is going to act about it!"

"Yes, she will be a bit put out by you rejecting her ideas, but she'll be glad you're finally showing some interest and she wants it to be something you'll like. She'll be fine."

"Come on, Lor. Just like we rehearsed. We've got this." Christopher gives Lorelai and reassuring smile and squeezed GG's hand in his.

"Ok." Lorelai takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.

As the maid opens the door and lets them in, they take off their coats, Christopher helping GG with hers, and they walk to the living room where Emily serves them mocktails (the house is currently alcohol free to abide to Richard's new dietary restrictions). Richard had been back from the hospital for only a couple of days. Th doctor was happy with his recovery so far and said there was nothing keeping Richard from going back to his normal life, as long as he didn't over exert himself in the next few weeks. Emily had, of course arranged for a professional chef to become their cook, in order to prepare healthy, low-sodium meals that Richard would still enjoy eating, despite the fact that it was all fish. On Richard's last day at the hospital, Emily has started commenting to Lorelai that she was going to have to postpone the engagement party for her and Christopher, but that only gave her and Lorelai more time to plan it to perfection. Knowing that if her father's heart attack couldn't cancel the party nothing would, Lorelai and Christopher had talked about the party and decided that they would do whatever they could to make it something actually enjoyable. But in order to do that they would have to veto a lot of Emily's ideas. That was not something they were looking forward to do. Nevertheless, they had a plan, they had rehearsed it, and they were hoping for the best. After drinks and convincing Richard to stop watching golf and join his guests, they moved to the dining room and sat to eat. Richard wasn't happy to be eating yet another fish dish, so Emily took the first opportunity to change the subject to something that would not put the focus on Richard or their food: the engagement party.

"Lorelai, Christopher. Now that things are back to normal, it's time we started planning the party again. You'll be glad to know that I called the venue and got them to rebook us to March 15. I've already contacted the printers with the new date for the invitations and they are going out early next week. It's a bit last minute, but our guests will understand the circumstances. So that is all arranged. But we still have to finalize the menu, the flowers, the seating chart, the music, the cake and what you're wearing, of course." She Emily talked, Lorelai and Christopher exchanged glances, nodding encouraging to each other.

"That sounds great, mom." Lorelai said as soon as she thought she could sneak a comment in her mother's monologue. "March 15 will work really well." Part of their plan was being positive about details that had already been set and could not be changed and letting Emily take several wins, in order for her to let them have their say in other details. "I have been thinking about the menu. You remember Sookie, right? She's catered a few of your DAR events. I think we should ask her to cater. She's reliable, we know for a fact her food is good, and we work together so I can make sure that the date works for her as far as the inn is concerned."

Christopher gave Lorelai a discrete wink and nodded his head in praise. Emily looked pleasantly surprised with Lorelai's words and interest. So, when she agreed with having Sookie be in charge of the food, Lorelai knew it was time to give her something she wanted, before trying to get more of the party done her way.

"Great. I will set up a meeting with her here for us to go over ideas for the menus with her and then ask her to give us a tasting about two weeks before the day of the party, for us to approve everything. You had mentioned Cornish game hens, right? Sookie made a great lemon pepper Cornish hen dish at the Dragonfly last year. Maybe she could do it again. What day next week would suit you best?"

Emily was positively speechless at that. "uhm… Tuesday afternoon."

"Tuesday afternoon is it." Lorelai agreed, a took another forkful of her sea bass. She glanced at Christopher, signalling that it was his turn.

"About the clothes, I actually already have a suit picked out from my father's tailor. He's been dressing the Hayden's for events for generations. I'm sure you'll be pleased. But I do need help with picking something for GG." He smiled at his young daughter. "Would you know someone that could take care of that?" He asked Emily, but Lorelai immediately jumped in, as previously rehearsed.

"Well, Miss Celeste is dressing us, isn't she, mom?" She asked, referring to the ancient dress maker that had been dressing Gilmore women since the Great Flood and kept comparing Lorelai to Elizabeth Taylor. "Do you think she could bring us some options in GG's size as well?"

By now, even Richard was looking surprised by how the conversation was going, his attention completely distracted from the bland fish dish he was eating. "Yes, I believe she carries some children styles…" Emily said.

"Fantastic. Did you hear that, GG? You're going to get a dress together with Lorelai and Rory for the party."

"Yay!" GG replied happily, eating her sea bass with gusto.

The conversation went like that for a little while longer, with Lorelai and Christopher agreeing with the flower and decorations decisions that Emily had previously hinted at. They also asked if she would be willing to organise the seating chart for them, since they were just oh so busy these days and Emily was so experienced in these things. That was the icing on the cake of their plans. It had all gone as they had hoped so far. They had thought that giving in to so many of her wishes, and seeming positive and interested in the planning of the party would make Emily more likely to give in to the one aspect of the party that Lorelai and Christopher did not want to leave to Emily: the music. If there was to be any hope that this party would be something they would enjoy, they could not have a string quartet, or anything like that. They needed an actual band. It was time to go for the jugular.

"Now, mom. Last time we talked about the music, you suggested a string quartet. That's a nice idea and all, but we want something a little different. We want a band. We actually already know the band we want. They are a 7-piece soul band called Soul Purpose. They played at a few Independence Inn weddings back in the day. They have a really fun list of tunes. They play classic soul, Motown era and some modern classics too. Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, Al Green, but also some Prince, Amy Winehouse, James Brown. Something for every age, and all very, very danceable. I've called them and told them more or less when the party was going to be and they are free around then. I'll call them tomorrow with the actual date and make sure they save it."

A long silence stretched out after Lorelai's speech, making Lorelai and Christopher literally start to sweat at the pressure. Rory saw it and started to worry that they would break. They had been prepared for it, but she knew this was the hardest part. Lorelai had structured her sentence very carefully, in a way that acknowledged Emily's ideas and provided strong support for her own suggestion, but at the end was a statement, and not a question for permission or approval. Now they had to hold the silence and let Emily be the next to speak. But the longer the silence lasted, the harder it was. Rory caught her mother's eyes and nodded her support, willing her not to break. To hold strong just for a little while longer.

"Fine." Emily said finally, putting down her fork and looking to her guest's dinner plates. "Are you all done? Aurora, please take our plates and bring out the dessert. We have fruit salad."

Later, after all of dinner had been eaten and the coffee drunken, Lorelai, Christopher, Rory and GG were putting their coats by the front door, saying their goodbyes to Emily and Richard.

"Thank you so much for a lovely dinner, Emily. Richard." Christopher shook hands with his father-in-law.

"Yes, thank you for dinner, Grandma Emily and Grandpa Richard." GG said, minding her manners.

"You're very welcome, Miss GG." Said Richard. "And I thank you again for the lovely card you made me. I'll place it in a place of honour in my office."

"Really? Thanks!" GG said and hugged Richard around the legs. Every one smiled and the adorable little girl hugging a man more than three times her height.

"I'll call you this weekend, mom, with a time for us to meet with Sookie. We can even do it at the Dragonfly if you want. Have lunch there."

"Sounds good. Tell Sookie I look forward to hearing her ideas." Lorelai led her family out of the door, wanting to get out of there asap, before Emily decided to disagree with everything they had decided tonight undo all the work they had made towards making the party bearable. Just as the door of the Gilmore residence was about to close behind them, Emily called.

"And Lorelai, what that really so hard?" She smiled sarcastically and closed the door, leaving her departing guests wide eyed and jaw dropped.

"She played me. My mother Gilmored me."

"Yup." Rory patted her mother on the shoulder in sympathy.

"I need a shower."

_**Pirates on Skates**_

The weeks until the party absolutely flew by. Lorelai and Christopher were busy with work and their own parts in preparing for the party. Lorelai had five more meetings with her mother than she had wanted to, discussing everything from the Sookie's food to cocktails, table cloths and centrepieces. On top of that, she had to attend multiple dress fittings for herself, Rory and GG. Christopher had also been semi bombarded with questions about his suit and samples of pocket squares. And Rory had been sending copies of her CV to what seemed to be every newspaper in the country and attending interviews almost every other day. She had also spent a lot of her time planning and executing every classic birthday celebration trick for Logan's 25th and a knock out baby shower for Lane and Zack.

Logan's birthday hadn't gone exactly as she had planned or hoped. At the last minute, Mitchum Huntzberger had called Logan and invited him and Rory out to dinner. While the dinner itself hadn't gone terribly, after dinner Logan's mood seemed to shift and he wasn't as excited about the surprises she had planned for him as she had hoped. Still, they had a nice evening ice skating in central park and then breaking into the piñata and eating all the candy in bed together. The baby shower, however, was going to be a blast. She had everything planned out, all the signs and banners, the cake, a gazillion onesies and enough finger paint to decorate all of them. She had even convinced Lorelai into helping talk Mrs. Kim into going to the baby shower. The only minor issue Rory had was that she had been invited to a job interview on the day of the shower. But since it was The New York Times, there was no way she was going to miss it. So, she arranged with Logan for them to leave the city right after her interview and she'd change in the car while he drove them to Stars Hollow.

However, the morning before the party, just as Lane and Mrs. Kim made peace - with the help of Lorelai- about the babies attending church and being allowed to eat "unclean" meats, Lane felt a sharp pain and was taken to the hospital. The doctor prescribed her with strict bed rest until the birth of the babies.

"This sucks!" Lorelai was venting to Christopher while they prepared lunch. "Rory planned every single detail and now we can't do it. She's going to be devastated."

"Is there really no way? We can get Lane a wheel chair, push her around the party." He suggested while making GG a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"I asked the doctor. He said she must stay in bed. Because its twins, Lane is very likely to go into early labour and the doctor wants the babies to stay in there as long as possible."

"Well… if a wheel chair won't work, how about a wheel bed?"

"What do you mean?" She asked as she prepared some coffee.

"We could put wheels on her bed. Now, the pushing her around the town square on a bed isn't going to go very well, I see that." He took a pause to think while about that as he cut the crusts off the sandwich. "But maybe we can move it somewhere else, inside, where the bed can stay put and have everything happen around it. Maybe Miss Patty's?"

"You could do that? Put wheels on her bed?"

"Yeah, sure. I'd just need to buy some skate boards or something like that. There's a skateboard shop in Bridgeport. Some plastic strips and silver tape and you're away."

"I'm so in love with you right now that I won't even mock you for knowing the location of the nearest skateboard shop." Lorelai laughed as she hugged him, planting a big kiss on his cheek. "Can you go get them now? I'll go talk to Miss Patty and start moving the party stuff indoors."

"Yeah, I can. But what about lunch?" Christopher questioned as Lorelai rushed around the room getting ready to leave. She pulled a pop tart out of the cupboard and handed it to him with an impish smile.

"Come on GG." She said as she wrapped GG's sandwich in napkins and handed them to her. "We have a party to save."

_**Pirates on Skates**_

Coming back from Bridgeport, the proud new owner of 4 skateboards, Christopher went straight to the town square, where he saw several of the town's people moving in and out of Miss Patty's with tables, cakes, boxes, and more. Right away he noticed another obstacle they were going to have to deal with, in order to save the party.

"Hey Jackson." He greeted his friend who was just coming out of Miss Patty's on his way to get another box of food Sookie had prepared out of his car.

"Christopher, hey!" Jackson greeted him with a warm handshake. Christopher and Jackson had had several man-dates together since the first. Except that now they were actually friends, so they didn't call them 'man-dates'. One of their favourite activities was watching whatever sport was playing at any given day on Christopher's big screen tv. Lorelai and Sookie where happy with that arrangement, for the most part, as it saved them for having to watch the games with their respective husbands. "Lorelai told us of your idea to put wheels on Lane's bed. We're almost done moving the party into Miss Patty's. Have you got the wheels?"

"Yeah, I have them here. Only, we have another problem."

"What?"

"We are going to need a ramp over these stairs." He motioned towards the steps leading into the dance study. No way can we wheel her bed in there without a ramp."

"Oh my god, you're right! I didn't even think about it."

"Can you get on it? I have to go attach the wheels to Lane's bed."

"Yeah, I guess. But I'm really not a tools kind of guy. I don't want to make something that is going to collapse as soon as we get the bed on top of it."

"No. That would be bad." He agreed with a laugh. "Let's not maim the woman heavily pregnant with twins."

"I could ask Luke to help. He's good with construction and tools and such." Jackson suggested, eying Christopher for his reaction. Christopher and Jackson hadn't really talked about how Christopher felt about Luke. Christopher still didn't feel completely comfortable discussing it with him, considering Jackson had known Luke for much much longer than Christopher. Nevertheless, Jackson, along with everybody else in town, was aware that Christopher had been making weekly visits to Luke's diner to order coffee. He never stayed long, always taking his coffee to go, and certainly didn't start long chats with Luke while he was there. But he always acted friendly, waved to the other patrons and had gotten into some fun discussions about 90s rock bands with Zack. Luke, for the most part, was cordial. If he had to serve Christopher himself, he would do it promptly and move on to the next customer as soon as possible. After a couple of visits, he even started adding a couple of monosyllabic replies, like 'hey' and 'yep'. All in all, things were going well. Still, Christopher was glad that Jackson brought up asking Luke for help, saving him from having to suggest it himself.

"Great idea. I'll go ahead and go work on Lane's bed. I'll come back when I'm done, see if you need any help." Christopher started walking away, sending Lorelai and GG, who were inside Miss Patty's rearranging the decorations, a smile and wave, lifting the bag of skateboards and nodding his head to Lane's.

Fitting the wheels to Lane's bed worked fine. He had to briefly ask Lane to relocate to the couch, just so he could lift the bed off its legs, but once the wheels were on, Lane went safely back to bed. Christopher even tested the weight of three more people on the bed and the wheels held perfectly. After that he went back to Miss Patty's to check if the ramp was done. Thankfully, Luke had done fast work of it, and Christopher didn't need to help with more than just holding a couple of boards in place while Luke screwed them in place. Just at that moment, Rory arrived.

"Hey! What's going on? Why if all the party stuff inside Miss Patty's?" She asked sounding a little panicked about her party plans not being executed to perfection.

"Hey, Rory." Christopher straightened up from the ramp and gave her a side hug, kissing her on the temple. "Everything is ok. Lane had some pain and the doctor told her she needs to be on bed rest. But look, we have it all figured out: We've moved the party into Miss Patty's, fitted her bed with wheels, and Jackson and Luke built this ramp so we can push Lane into the dance studio and have the party around her." As he spoke, Luke and Jackson also straightened up and waved at her. "Your mom and GG are inside with the others, finishing all the decorations."

It was a lot for Rory to take in at once, and she clung to the news that something was wrong with her best friend. "Lane was in pain? Why? Is she ok?"

Lorelai had heard Rory arrive and approached her. "She's fine, hon. It's just because it's twins. They tend to come early. But she's in good spirits, right Chris?"

"Yes, she's doing great. I was just with her, attaching the wheels to her bed. She's excited about the party."

"The ramp looks great guys! Thanks, Luke, Jackson." Lorelai nodded at them.

"Yes. Thank you so much!" Rory added, sincerely.

"No problem." Luke answered with a gentle smile.

"Are we ready to bring Lane out?" Christopher asked Luke.

"Well, we should test it first." Luke walked on the ramp, bouncing on it slightly to make sure it would hold. Jackson and Christopher joined him, adding more weight. "Feels good. I think we're good to go."

"Great. Everybody, the party is about to start!" Lorelai shouted walking back into the dance studio.

Rory, Christopher and Jackson walked to Lane's and, with the help of Zack, wheeled her, on her bed, across the square towards the party. At the bottom of the ramp, Luke and Kirk joined to help push the bed up the ramp. Everything went smoothly and as Lane arrived inside the party, everyone broke into cheers and applause. Christopher gave a small sigh of relief that the wheels he had installed hadn't sent his daughter's pregnant best friend tumbling down the ramp. Looking to his right, he saw that Luke looked just a relieved as him and, before he could think twice about it, Christopher smiled and extended a hand to Luke to shake, in congratulations of a job well done. Luke eyed his hand for a moment, and Christopher almost pulled it back, but then Luke reached out and shook Christopher's hand in a firm handshake. Before the moment could get any more awkward, GG called for her dad to join her to see the banners she had helped hang up and he gladly joined the party.

_**Pirates on Skates**_

The baby shower was well underway and everyone was having a great time. Rory had spent some time going around checking that everything was set up properly and that no one had forgotten anything, but everything was perfect. Lane was so happy. She couldn't stop looking around at everything Rory had planned and thank everyone for helping to make it come true. She particularly liked the station with projection photos of what the babies would look like based on meshing together baby photos of her and Zack. The photos looked really weird and kind of disturbing, but Zack really liked them – after an initial period of being really freaked out by them – and now couldn't stop talking about them and day dreaming about what the babies would really look like.

Rory, Christopher, Lorelai and GG were on the onesie decorating station, Rory telling her parents all about her job interview with The New York Times. She felt that the interview had gone really well. She had been prepared and confident and had had a lovely chat with the interviewer.

"My daughter working for the New York Times." Lorelai said dreamily.

"I haven't got it yet, mom. I don't want to get too excited ahead of time. It might not happen."

"It'll happen!"

"Even if it doesn't, you obviously made a really good impression. These newspaper people all know each other and they talk. So, making a good impression to them will improve your chances everywhere." Christopher said, as he cleaned his paint brush in a cup of water and started on another colour, completely focused on his work.

"Exactly. I had a good time, I made a connection. Now at least one person in there knows me, That's enough for now." Rory said with a content smile.

"What did Logan say about the interview? Why isn't he here, by the way?" Asked Lorelai. Rory's smile vanished, and she shrugged her shoulders.

"He's had a tough few weeks at work so he went to Vegas with Colin and Finn." She couldn't help letting her irritation show in her voice.

"Oh? Is everything ok?"

"Well, they seem incapable of facing their problems. Instead they run off, fly around the globe to blow off steam and leave things to blow over. Whatever, it's not my problem. I don't want to think about them right now."

Lorelai and Christopher exchanged glances, obviously aware that Rory wasn't super happy with Logan right now and wondering how to change the subject to distract her. Thankfully, GG chose this exact moment to ask the question that every parent dreads having to answer.

"Dad, where do babies come from?" She asked nonchalantly, barely looking away from her onesie, which she was decorating with a rainbow and something that looked like might become a unicorn. Rory and Lorelai held in laughs when they saw the look of slight panic in Christopher's eyes. He looked to Lorelai for help, but she just held up her hands and shook her head.

"Don't look at me. Rory never asked me that. She just went to the library and looked it up." Rory confirmed her mother's story with a nod.

"Uhm…" Christopher started slowly. "They come from the mother's belly, GG."

"How do they get in her belly?"

"They just, uhm, grow there." Christopher's strategy was to say as little as possible. Being only 5 years old, GG was definitely too young to grasp all the details of the truth. Besides, she was probably just wondering about it now because she was surrounded by baby stuff.

"Is that why Lane's belly is so big?"

Christopher laughed. "Yes, that's right. But her belly looks even bigger than normal because she is having two babies"

"Two babies? At the same time?"

"Yes. Normally mothers have one baby at a time, like with you and with Rory. But sometimes mothers can have two babies, or even three babies growing at the same time."

"Can I have a baby?" She asked sweetly, just like she was asking for another chocolate chip pancake or ice cream after dinner. Lorelai jumped in.

"I'm sure you'll have a baby when you're older, Geege. But, let me tell you, babies aren't all that great. They eat all your food, and pull on your hair, and it takes years for them to go away." She said, winking at Rory. GG frowned, displeased at the thought of something pulling her hair, and pushed the onesie she was decorating away from her.

"Wow, GG! That looks really good!" Rory praised her sister's decorated onesie. "Even better than the drawing you made for grandpa. How did you learn to draw so well?"

"Dad said I get it from him." The three girls turned their attention to Christopher, who had been focused on putting the finishing touches in his fourth onesie.

"Dad, look at you!" Rory said surprised, pulling his finished onesies towards to her for closer inspection. "These look amazing! Lane and Zack are going to love them!"

The onesies Christopher had decorated showed logos of famous rock bands. One was in black and white, recreating the electrifying font of Metallica. The second one had, in red, the iconic lips and tongue of The Rolling Stones. The third was in a mix of yellow, red and orange and showed a cartoon of a skull in flames inside of a circle, the logo of his beloved band, The Offspring. The final one, his most elaborate one, had two revolvers pointing in opposite directions and wrapped in the thorny stems of two blood red roses. In the back, a yellow circle with the words 'Guns N Roses'. Rory's enthusiasm about the onesies called the attention of Gipsy and Babette, who were standing nearby, looking at the collage of baby photos hanging on the wall.

"That's quite a talent, Christopher." Gipsy said.

"I can't believe you drew these. I didn't know you could draw and paint so well." Rory continued.

"Thanks." He gave a humble smile. "I used to draw a lot in high school, but didn't do much of it afterwards. Since GG started playing with pencils and crayons I kind of got back into it."

"I remember one time, when we were 10 years old, I wanted to go to Disneyland for my birthday." Lorelai started to tell. "I really wanted to meet Goofy. Of course, Emily wouldn't dream of it. Whoever heard of children spending their birthday running around a park, eating fried food and going on rides? Instead, she put me in a dress with more ruffles than waves on a beach and got tickets for us to go to a Brahms concerto in Boston. It was so boring, oh my god. I told your dad how much it had sucked the next day at school and by the end our last class that day he gave me a drawing of me taking a photo with Goofy." She laughed happily. "It was the best birthday present I had ever gotten." She squeezed his hand with a big smile. Everyone around them smiled at the story.

"I can't believe you remember that." He said, pulling her hand to his lips and planting a kiss to her knuckles.

"I still have it." She said simply.

"You do not!" Christopher said disbelieving.

"I do. It's at the house. I'll show you."

"I have an idea. How about this year, for your birthday, we go to Disneyland and get a real photo with Goofy? All four of us." He suggested to Lorelai a glint in his eye.

Lorelai's smile grew impossibly larger. "Let's do it."

"Yeah! I want to meet Goofy!" GG cheered.

**Author's Note: Thanks everyone for reading! Like I said before, I'm definitely not a writer and I struggled with this chapter. Basically, I got bored with it. I almost gave up finishing it. So please let me know if you liked it and/or want to read more/want me to continue. A little bit of encouragement will go a long way right now. Also, if you have any ideas of scenes you'd like to see between Christopher and Lorelai (or anyone else) in this verse, let me know. I can always use some ideas for inspiration. Have a great week!**


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